Winston Report: 8-7 – Dropped Passes Affect Winston's Uneven Day

While it wasn’t a meteoric crash of epic proportions, QB Jameis Winston did fall back to earth a little on Friday. Of course duplicating his terrific success of Thursday would be asking a little too much from a rookie. And in the case of the media, we may be making way too much of both the highs and lows of Tampa Bay’s rookie signal-caller so far in camp.

On Friday, as practice began, Winston – along with Mike Glennon and Seth Lobato – spent the first part of the day working with QB coach Mike Bajakian practicing some simple play-action drop backs from under center and finding the running backs in the flat. Next came straight drops from under center and working with quick seam passes with the tight ends. All three quarterbacks did well in the drill.

Bajakian tried to affect the throws by swatting at the QBs simulating pressure from the edge in the next drill. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter got in quite the workout as well, as he played a simulated linebacker role and used paddles to try and affect the throws from the quarterbacks as well.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The general theme for Winston has been slow starts. Of course in most of the practices the defense is, by design, working to make his job incredibly difficult, throwing different looks and blitzes his way. No one could even begin to make a reasonable argument that the Bucs coaching staff is trying to baby Winston. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and Lovie Smith have thrown everything but a training tub full of cold ice water at Winston, in an attempt to rattle the young quarterback, and at times it has created some problems.

During the first 11-on-11 period the Bucs sent Lavonte David, and Bruce Carter on blitzes, and even a corner blitz from Alterraun Verner to try and give Winston problems. And it was Winston’s least productive period as he only went 3-of-7 with an interception on his first pass attempt of the day on a long ball that was picked by cornerback Johnthan Banks.

Winston talked about his interception following practice.

“Just single high,” Winston said. “I gave my man a shot and the other guy – I mean, those guys are good over there. But like I said, it’s not about that. It’s about going out there and competing, it’s about getting better. Obviously it was three (interceptions), two and one, and, you know, hopefully it’s zero.”

In the next period Glennon took over with the first team working on Field 1 on power running and Winston went to the south end of the middle field where he worked with the receivers and cornerback going 1-on-1. Winston was equally unimpressive in this period as, finishing just 2-of-8. But as we have seen over the last six days, Winston would eventually get in a rhythm, and that is what next happened in the 7-on-7’s.

The Bucs defense was determined to make Winston be patient and for the most part he took the check downs instead of trying to force things down the field. Winston’ most impressive pass of the period came late when he hit tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins on a deep cross moving right to left. The second year tight end caught the perfect pass in stride, but as he approached the sideline fumbled the ball before recovering it himself. Winston finished 8-of-11 in the drill.

Winston kept his accuracy up in the final 11-on-11 period going eight of ten including a nice deep ball to Mike Evans on scramble and roll to his right. Winton also had a fumbled snap that he picked up but still found Tavares King for a short gain. While it was a nice improvisation from Winston, in a game, trying to complete a pass after a fumble, normally leads to disaster. All Winston needs to do is call former Bucs QB Josh McCown to verify that.

Winston’s final numbers were affect by his receivers having some issues holding onto the ball. There were at least five legitimate drops on Friday.

Winston talked about his day following practice on Friday, and was asked if he felt he was learning something every day.

“Absolutely. I have no choice. We are installing new plays every single day. Different reads, different progressions and I’m throwing to different people all the time. So I have no choice but to get better every day. If I chose to take a day off, it wouldn’t be smart.”

About the author

Mark Cook currently is the director of editorial content and Bucs beat writer and has written for PewterReport.com since 2011. Cook has followed the Buccaneers since 1977 when he first began watching football with his Dad and is fond of the 1979 Bucs team that came within 10 points of going to a Super Bowl. His favorite Bucs game is still the 1979 divisional playoff win 24-17 over the Eagles. In his spare time Cook enjoys playing guitar, fishing, surfing and family time at the beach. In addition, Cook can be found in front of a television or in Doak Campbell any time the FSU Seminoles are playing. Cook is a native of Pinecrest in Eastern Hillsborough County and has written for numerous publications including the Tampa Tribune, In the Field and Ya'll Magazine. Cook can be reached at mark@pewterreport.com

Horse

I’m not comfortable with all this focusing on Winston and then evaluating it this way by rating it on throws, completions, interceptions. Just my opinion. Right now I would be focusing on the OL and DL and determining are we really better and why we are or not. The real need has been a pass rush and an OL that can provide openings for the RB’s and time for the QB to throw the ball.

macabee

Ron Jaworski has been an outspoken critic of Jameis Winston. But even he agrees with the strategy the Bucs are taking with his development in camp and the preseason.
Hall of Fame, Sid Gilman, used to say, “In training camp, test yourself. In preseason, test yourself. See the throws that you can make consistently and those that you can’t make consistently. So when you get to the regular season and you think there is a throw there you can make, and you missed it three times in the preseason, don’t get carried away and think you can stick it in there. Know what you can do.”
So Jaworski agrees that’s what you can do in training camp. That’s what you can do in the preseason. So he is not that concerned about interceptions in the preseason. He referred to the fact that Aaron Rodgers has five interceptions in training camp. He believes that you have to test your talent so you know what you can do but more importantly, what you can’t do.
I’ve been an outspoken critic of Jaws, But this seems like good advice to me! Jameis is going to throw INTs and learn from them!

buclover1988

i understand that winston is the most important draft pick in our teams history to date, but hes gonna have some struggles. hes 21 yrs old. everyone seems to forget that andrew luck played 4 yrs at stanford. also luck wasnt playing baseball like winston was. it will come with winston. hes got so much football ahead of him. hes extremely intelligent. please can we chill out. letting him deveolpe CORRECTLY and learning from his mistakes is key to him becoming the long term answer. i love what hes doing, i love his fearlessness and confidence. he will be a star and will finally silence cam newton, matt ryan, and drew breese.